


Connected

by Helloleonardmccoy



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Tumblr AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-01-13 14:38:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1230163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helloleonardmccoy/pseuds/Helloleonardmccoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bones is finally talked into making a tumblr. Will it help make his college life more fun or give him even more to stress about? And why is Jim Kirk suddenly interested in him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Therealmccoy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One Leonard McCoy makes a tumblr

It was his second year of college when M’Benga talked him into making it. A tumblr. He still had no idea why he had given in.

"It could relieve the stress and help you vent while you go through school. Its what keeps a smile on my face most of the time." McCoy frowned.

“I think I would be just fine without it.”

"You say that now but you will be thanking me later for introducing you to a whole new world." M’Benga batted his hand away from the mouse and pressed a few buttons and some how uploaded a whole list of words that McCoy had been trying to copy.

“How’d you do that? See? I shouldn’t even be allowed on the computer.” M’benga just laughed.

“I’ve got your theme all set up and your pages. All you have to do is fill them out and it looks like your set. I have a shift coming up at the clinic so I’ll check on it tomorrow. Here let me click on my blog and we can follow each other.” He dragged the mouse over to the search page and typed in a name.

"Really? Thats your name?" McCoy couldn’t stop his eyebrow from raising.

"Hey, , is better than ‘therealmccoy’ which I still think you should change. I can’t believe it wasn’t taken already." He snorts and straightens.

"Whens your next shift at the clinic?" McCoy stretched from where he was bent over the computer.

“Not for a couple days actually. I think Christine is working tonight though so you’ll probably get stuck with her.”

"If she heard you say that I am sure you would have a black eye. Anyway finish setting that up so everyone can follow you. I’ll see you later." McCoy sighed as Geoff left the room to head to his shift and turned back to the screen. He scanned over Geoffs page and laughed a little. Jabilosmynameandgame. Funny. He read over his page a little to try and get a feel for what he should write on his own. Geoff was…..pretty freaking boring. He just listed most of his classes and a lot of medical jargon. Sure he had his fandoms listed too but his about me page about put Mccoy to sleep. Sighing he went back to his own page and tapped his fingers against the desk in thought.

About Me: Names Leonard McCoy. I’m 24 and a Pre-Med student at Berkley. You’ll probably find my rantings about class here but mostly I think I’ll just reblog a lot of pictures or something. I don’t really know seeing as how I have no idea what a ‘tumblr’ is really for and was forced to make one thanks to jabilosmynameandgame so you can thank him for this little spot of sunshine in your life. He went to the next page.

Fandoms. Oh shit. There were too many to count. He tried to list out a few. Harry Potter, House, Scrubs, just different things but he knew he wouldn’t get them all so he left a just ask me at the bottom of the page. He finished filling out everything for his blog and felt a slight sense of pride looking at it. It actually looked pretty cool. It had a lot of human bones and their medical names as his background and a picture of himself as his avatar. He was scowling over a cup of coffee at Geoff who had thought he was being sneaky taking the picture. He decided to type in a few of the things he liked in the search bar and was surprised to find that he had been reblogging things for an hour when his phone finally went off, telling him it was time to meet Geoff and Christine for lunch. He stood up and stretched. Sighing he stuffed his phone in his pocket and grabbed a jacket to head out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Did you download the app for your phone?" Christine asked over her container of Low Mein, stuffing another chopstick full into her mouth.

"Jesus Chris, Swallow before you speak!" McCoy rolled his eyes. "No I haven’t. I think Im already liking it too much as is….don’t you fucking grin at my Geoff. Im not thanking you."

"You don’t have to. But really you should download the app. You could at least check your activity that way." Geoff took a sip of his spiced tea.

"My what?" McCoy reached over to try to steal one of Christines napkins and got bit for his trouble. "Damn! Alright I’ll get my own. Stingy." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Your activity. Dont tell me you haven’t been looking at it….What if someone followed you? How would you know it?" Geoff, with quick nimble fingers, stole McCoys phone from his pants pocket.

"Personal space, damn! Can’t a man not be groped while hes trying to eat his spicy chicken?" He rolled his eyes. "Who would already be following me? Besides you two that is….I have barely made two personal post and just reblogged a lot of shit."

"Well clearly someone likes that….You have three new followers." Christine said looking over Geoffs shoulder at his phone.

"Oh this is funny."

"What? Gimme that." He pulled the phone from M’bengas hands and stared at the screen. "What does this mean? Am I supposed to know them?" Christine snickered and M’Benga chuckled.

“Normally anyone from all over the world could follow you but….you actually do know two of them. Maybe you should click their pages.” He could tell Geoff was trying hard not to laugh. “Try it-is-logical first.” He pulled up the page and cursed.

“That damn Canadian is following me!!!! How the hell did he find me?” He glared up from his phone at the two snickering friends. “What did you do?”

"Well….." Geoff started and Christine finished. "We might have did a promo…." 

"A what?" His face was slightly blank as he tried to figure out what that meant.

"It means we told people to follow you." Chris snickered and McCoy dipped his fingers in his water to flick at her.

"This is….." He got cut off.

"Check out the others." Geoff encouraged. Grumbling he pulled up the next page. thatwasinventedinrussia. Shit.

“Chekov is going to get his boyfriend to kill me if he doesn’t quit going crazy over me.” McCoy sighed.

"Its called fangirling, Leonard, and Sulu is just as bad. You just wait till he finds out your on tumblr." She snickered again and McCoy just glared. "Who’s this other one? mischiefnotmanaged? Do I know him?" He squinted down at the bluest eyes he had ever seen. He would have remembered meeting him.

"Only by reputation. Thats Jim Kirk." Christine said with a slight hiss in her voice and McCoy remembered they had had a one night stand at one point. Oh. So that was Jim Kirk. Huh. He could see what the fuss was about.

"Why the hell is he following me?" He looked up. "No idea but it can’t end good." He felt an ominous wave of dread at Christines words and tried to shake it off.


	2. Mischiefnotmanaged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One Jim Kirk finds a new tumblr to follow

He scrolled through his dashboard and laughed at a few different posts that his friends had done, and then looked at his activity feed. Hmmm not bad. Twelve new followers with in the last couple of hours. It might have been the couple of selfies he had posted. He was hot and everyone knew it. It was probably the main reason a lot of people followed him. He chuckled and went to his ask box where he had a 5 in the corner.

_Jim are you single?- Anonymous asked_

Always trying to use his first name like they knew each other. He only followed the people he knew from school and he was pretty sure that none of them would be asking questions on anon.

_**Why yes I am. ;)** _

That should hold them over for a bit. He didn’t want to go into too much detail or give them some random hope. He wasn’t into long distance relationships. Hell, he wasn’t really into relationships period.

_Are we still on for lunch today? I warn you Uhura is still pissed at you trying to rifling through her underwear drawer. No idea what you were thinking there Laddy. Shes a viper on a good day.-ScotchforScotts asked_

He actually laughed really hard at that one. It hadn’t been one of his better moves but he did still owe Uhura some hell for kicking him out of the car the other night and leaving him to walk back to the dorms in the rain. He was just glad that Scotty was so good natured about it. Normally if anyone looked at Uhura he got protective, but maybe because he knew that Jim wasn’t really after her for a relationship or the fact that everyone around the whole campus knew the story of Uhura turning down the Jim Kirk but Scotty didn’t seem to mind when Jim flirts with her. She doesn’t even seem to really care anymore either and just laughs.

_**It was all in good fun and maybe if I offer to buy her lunch and a beer she will forgive me. Im inviting Gaila too as a surprise for her. Since you two moved in together they haven’t seen each other very often so maybe she will mellow out with that.** _

He never bothered sending anything privately. He figured that people liked reading his personal things and that was why he had over a thousand followers. The others didn’t really seem to mind it either and laughed at all the likes their messages got and even some follows they got through Jim. 

_I ship you and Thegreenqueen -Anonymous asked_

He laughed hard at that one.

_**Well thank you for that but Im sure Gailas new love interest wont be happy about that.** _

He really hoped that it would work out for them. Gaila was like…well she was like Jim and the fact that she actually liked this person enough to try to have a relationship was amazing. Jim didn’t need to be screwing it up with trying to still be friends with benefits. No. He had let that go. 

_You skipped Biochemistry today. Spock was….unhappy. -Iambetter asked_

He rolled his eyes.

_**If Spock was so unhappy why isn’t he messaging me and not his boy toy?** _

_You skipped Biochemistry - it-is-logical asked_

Oh….oppps….no way was he going to say sorry to Khan but still.

_**Yup. Knew you would take notes for me so I caught up on some other homework. Didn’t miss much did I?** _

Once he was done answering messages he went to scroll through his dashboard. He froze, a smile spreading across his face, at a promo post.

_Oh look this is Christine doing a super sneaky promo for a prehistoric dinosaur who will never find this. You should go follow[him](http://imtherealbonesmccoy.tumblr.com/). Hes new. Needs lots of friends and Im sure half of you know the cranky old bastard._

Oh this just made Jims day. He clicked the follow button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone would like to edited these for me please let me know. This is my first time publishing here and I would like feedback.


	3. Its a Trap

He tried to push it to the back of his mind but it always came up every time he logged on to tumblr. mischiefnotmanaged would like something of his or would comment with a face and a few words and all McCoy could do was wonder why? Why was he looking at his stuff and why was he even following him? They hadn’t met before and he didn’t have any classes with the kid, so why?

He had went through Jim’s follow list and realized they had a lot of friends in common. Maybe that was it. Maybe he was just trying to be friendly since they knew a lot of the same people, but if it was why couldn’t McCoy shake the feeling of unease every time he saw the kid like something of his?

He had been scrolling for a while when he finally went back to his dashboard and noticed that he had about seven messages. Great. They were probably all Christine trying to get him to take her shifts so she could go with her girlfriend to see Catching Fire while it was still in theaters. Sighing he clicked on the envelope.

Sure enough the first one was from her.

_Common Len. Please take the six hour shift tonight? Its the only time Jan has free since her fucking Captain is being a drill seargent and working her to the bone on campus watch shifts. Why she wants to be a police officer is beyond me. - youreluckyyoureoutofit asked_

He sighed and banged his head against the desk. Women. He couldn’t freaking help but give in. Shit.

_**Fine but you and Jan owe me dinner for at least a month for this. You know how much I hate the graveyard shift. Its when the creepy old men come in and try to grab my ass.** _

The next one made him want to throw something across the room, namely his computer so he wouldn’t have to answer.

_Uhura and I were meeting some friends for lunch and she suggested that I invite you along. -it-is-logical asked_

Goddamn Canadian. Goddamn vegan Canadian that was going to try to talk him out of eating meat again and try to play it off as being healthy.

_**And Scotty doesn’t care that you and your ex still meet up? Or Khan for that matter? I guess I’ll come. Txt me the time and place.** _

He had two anonymous messages after that and they made his ears turn red. 

_Your training to be a doctor right? What do you do if you have something….stuck up somewhere? -Anonymous asked_

_**You go to the damn hospital like a normal person instead of asking random blogs for advice. Also you should find ‘instructions’ before you stick anything anywhere. Damn idiots!  
** _

_Are you currently seeing anyone? -Anonymous asked_

**_Don’t see how its any of your business but no I’m not._ **

Two others were some crap messages from these blogs claiming to be doctors wanting to talk to him about medical stuff but they kept messing up their lingo that any med student would have gotten right in their sleep. He had a feeling he was going to end up blocking them just to save his nerves. 

The next message had him pausing and rereading before he hit the reply button.

_Saw your Harry Potter quiz. Always pegged you for a Hufflepuff. To bad Im a Gryffindor. Maybe they would let me transfer so we could hang out. :) Im Jim btw. I think we may get to meet at the Christmas party Gaila is throwing if not sooner. -Mischiefnotmanaged asked_

His tongue felt thick in his throat and he contemplated just deleting it and pretending he never got it. In the end he found his fingers moving over the keys of their own accord, with him barely thinking about what he was writing.

_**I don’t think they allow transfers. You would be in the right place since thats what the sorting hat is for. Wouldnt mean that we couldn’t still hang out. Should I even ask how you know Gaila? Well I guess it would be nice to meet the person who keeps liking all my posts face to face.** _

He could have kicked himself for the last part. Way to let him know that you knew. Shit. He nervously tapped his fingers and quickly refreshed his page to see that he already had another message. Couldn’t have been from Jim. That was too quick. He clicked on it. 

_You already agreed to come to lunch with us so don’t even think of backing out now but…..someone else is tagging along…..and they like you. You should dress nice and that doesn’t mean throwing on clothes that you’ve only worn twice Len. -Talentedtongue asked._

Damn that Uhura. Who the hell could possibly like him? It had to be someone from their group of friends and that was…disturbing….For starters everyone was already in a relationship or just starting one. It didn’t make Leonard feel alone or anything since he preferred it that way, but this was going to make it bad if someone was thinking of splitting up. Everyone that was together was just….perfect. Even he could see that, though a romantic he wasn’t, no matter what Chris said. He couldn’t see anyone with anyone else, especially not himself. This was bad.

_**This is not a good idea Uhura. You know Im not looking for anything and….its just a bad idea. Maybe I should sit this one out.** _

He sent it and refreshed his page to reblog some things to get his mind off of it but saw he had another message. Dread filled him but quickly disappeared as he clicked on the envelope. 

_Glad you would still want to hang out even though Im in the awesome house. I think its obvious to everyone how I know Gaila. Its how she knows most people. And oh you noticed that huh? What can I say, I like what I like. -Mischiefnotmanaged asked.._

Cocky little shit.

_**Awesome house? The only reason it would have been could was Harry and he wouldn’t be there. Hufflepuff would be the place to be and your just jealous. Shouldn’t it be thats how you know most people? You have the same reputation. Hard not to notice when its on every post. Think thats going beyond like into obsession, kid. Might want to get that checked.** _

Just as he was finishing up writing and hit send his phone buzzed. It was a text from Uhura threatening him nine ways to Sunday if he didn’t show up. Things like ‘he’s a nice boy’ and ‘I swear you’ll like him’ were thrown around. It really shouldn’t have surprised him so much that Uhura was trying to set him up with a man. He had sworn off women after his ex, Joss, and said he was going to give guys the ‘old college try’ and he had kind of meant it. He just hadnt expected anyone to take it to heart. Sighing he quickly threw on a clean white t-shirt and some Jeans with barely any holes in them and looked around for his leather jacket. It was getting cold out and he would need it. He found it quickly and threw it on heading out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He got there a little later than he expected but it didn’t look like everyone had been waiting too long.

Mario’s was the best and cheapest pizza place near campus. Their business was always booming and you couldn’t really find one booth without a college kid in it.

His rag tag group of Spock, Khan, Uhura and Scotty were already seated near a window in the back with two extra chairs at the end. He took the one facing the window.

"Sorry. Walk was a little longer than I thought, but at least Im not the last one here." He looked over at Uhura. "So you gonna actually tell me anything about this guy or just keep giving vague answers?"

She smiled.” I can tell you that hes an Engineering major. Hes pretty much a genius but dont tell him that, it will go straight to his head. He’s two years younger than you…Don’t give me that look. I know you don’t like younger but really he’s sweet once you get to actually know him.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “Actually know him? What does he have a reputation for being a dick or something?”

Scotty laughed. “Y’could say that. Laddy is….Hard to describe. Once you meet ‘im m’sure you’ll like him. He takes some gettin used to. Cocky, that one is, but a good friend.”

Well if Scotty liked him he couldn’t be that bad. He looked over at Spock and Khan. “Anything from the peanut gallery? If you guys actually like him….I wouldn’t know what to think…” They were the hardest judges on character. It was a wonder that they had so many friends.

"J-He is…" Spock cut off the name at a glare from Uhura. "He is remarkable. He indeed does have a stunning intellect."

That was weird. It was like Spock was fangirling.

"He beat a couple of Spocks quizzes he set up for the faculty. Even I have to admit that I am…impressed." Khan said evenly. "He is hard to understand at first but…it will be worth it in the end Leonard." He leveled a stare at McCoy that almost made him shiver. It was like he was warning him not to break the guys heart. Great. Clearly this kid was a saint or something and Leonard was in over his head.

"Look here he comes. Just give it a chance ok?" Uhura said, waving to someone over his shoulder. He turned to look and his eyes went wide and his mouth was slightly open in shock.

They were trying to set him up with Jim Kirk.


	4. Heart Sick

He tried to hide his grin when he scrolled through his dash and liked things but he knew it was plastered on his face. Just reading the grumbling posts and the yelling at people was enough to make Jims day.

"Are you stalking him again?" Uhura asked, hopping off the couch where she was sitting next to her boyfriend to lean over Jims shoulder to look at what he was reading.

"Its not stalking if he posts it for the world to see." Jim tried to defend himself, but even he knew he had a problem.

"Uh huh. So when are you going to tell him?" She asked, resting her head on his shoulder and scanning the small screen.

"Tell him what?" He turned to look at her and heard Scotty snort.

"That ye like ‘im, laddy. A blind man coulda seen it." Kirk bristled.

"I don’t like him…don’t give me those fucking looks you guys. Its just….when we met before he was….interesting…." He was not blushing. Not at all.

"Wait you met before?" Uhura sat up, taking interest and spun Jim to face her. "When? Details now."

He sighed. “Its not that big of a deal and I doubt he even remembers….alright!” He threw his hands up in defeat at Uhuras insistent staring and even Scotty had dropped down to the floor to give him go on looks.

"It was welcome week last year. Had been bar hopping and was going to go back home with some girl when her boyfriend showed up and we had a big bar fight. Got thrown out. He was getting ready to take a couple more swings when out of no where the guy comes up and pats him on the shoulder and whispers something in his ear that makes him turn red then pale and he runs off, his girlfriend chasing behind him." He was grinning from the thought.

"New guy was completely drunk but could clearly still handle himself but I offered him a cab ride as thanks. You know what his first words were to me? ‘I may throw up on you.’ Can you believe that?" Jim shook his head. "In the cab I asked him what he had said to the guy and he said he told him some sort of sexual transmitted disease his girlfriend had had and that he was lucky he hadn’t caught it yet. He knew enough medical lingo to make it stick and scare the guy good. He let me come up with him to his dorm and we drank some more and talked all night. I ended up getting up and leaving early and i don’t think he even remembered that I was there."

"Thats it? He saved your ass and you suddenly developed a huge crush on him? If that was the only criteria to catch Jim Kirks attention Im surprised you haven’t gone for Spock."

Jim made a face at that. “Ewwww Canadian and weird. No thanks Khan can have him. Hes better as my best friend not a lover. Besides it wasn’t….it wasn’t just cause he helped me out. It was talking to him all night. Did you know he was married before?” Jim asked eying her.

"Yeah but he’s never told anyone what happened. Did he tell you?" She was interested again and that worried Jim. She was dangerous when she found something interesting.

"Yes he did but don’t even bother asking cause I wont tell you."

Scotty and Uhura were distracted for a bit by texts they got so he went back to tumblr and scrolled through imtherealmccoy’s page. He didn’t really know what he was thinking but suddenly his fingers were typing and he was hitting send before he could stop himself.

_**Saw your Harry Potter quiz. Always pegged you for a Hufflepuff. To bad Im a Gryffindor. Maybe they would let me transfer so we could hang out. :) Im Jim btw. I think we may get to meet at the Christmas party Gaila is throwing if not sooner.** _

To late to take it back now. All he could do was sit and wait. He tapped his fingers against his leg impatiently as he waited for a reply. He ignored the other messages in his inbox and just kept refreshing, waiting for the response. His face broke out into a smile when he got it. 

_I don’t think they allow transfers. You would be in the right place since thats what the sorting hat is for. Wouldnt mean that we couldn’t still hang out. Should I even ask how you know Gaila? Well I guess it would be nice to meet the person who keeps liking all my posts face to face._

So he noticed Jim liking all of his things. That wasn’t that big of a deal. He could handle it. He would just try to play it cool and play it off.

**_Glad you would still want to hang out even though Im in the awesome house. I think its obvious to everyone how I know Gaila. Its how she knows most people. And oh you noticed that huh? What can I say, I like what I like._ **

He knew it sounded a little cocky but he couldn’t help it. 

Suddenly there was a lap full of Uhura in front of him, taking up all of his attention. “What?”

"Don’t get mad ok? We kind of sort of told Spock and Khan about your crush and they came up with a plan." He paled.

"You did what! Uhura thats not funny!" He started to protest more but her hand came up to cover his mouth and he resisted the urge to lick it.

"Shhh it will be fine. We invited him to lunch with all of us. He doesn’t know that you like him or anything so just play it cool and hang out alright?"

This time he did lick her hand and was satisfied by the shriek he received. “Wait hes coming to lunch with us? Today? Oh no nononono.” He quickly stood up with Uhura in his arms and placed her in Scotty’s lap. “I need to change. Hell I need to shower! This is not cool Uhura! Im not prepared and only have……” He looked at the clock. “Half and hour to reach peak hotdom.”

She grinned. “Then you better run back to your room and get started instead of bitching at me.”

He ran.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was nervous as he walked down the street towards Mario’s. He had changed his outfit at least five times before he decided on a white tshirt with a black cardigan and his red plaid shirt over it. Jeans and his black thick rimmed glasses and he was ready to go. He was going to try not to think about the amount of time he had spent on his hair though that was the reason that he was running so late. 

He walked through the doors, looking around to see if he could spot his friends when he noticed Uhura in the back waving at him. He started walking when he saw McCoy turn around and saw the look of surprise on his face and his heart dropped into his stomach. He knew. He knew that Jim liked him and he probably didn’t feel the same way….

Jim tried to plaster his cocky smile on his face and pretend like everything was fine and that his world hadn’t just been shattered as he took his seat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the chapters so far have been short cause they were originally Tumblr posts only so Im going to try to make the rest of the chapters longer.


	5. Not so Bad

This was a nightmare, he thought as he sat down trying to look at everyone but Leonard McCoy. Eventually he would have to though since they were sitting across from each other, but he didn't want to see the look on his face. His disgust at knowing Jim liked him. Instead he opted for casual conversation.

"Hope you guys saved me some pizza. I'm starving." He rubbed his hands together.

"Haven't even ordered yet. We were waiting on you two slow pokes." Uhura said, nudging McCoy where he sat and just like that Jims attention was directed to the one place he would rather not look.

Instead of seeing disgust there though all he saw was curiosity. "You waited maybe ten minutes tops." He answered gruffly and Jims stomach did somersaults. That voice was going to cause Jim to have a heart attack.

"Can we 'ust order te pie? 'M starvin here." Scotty motioned for the waitress to come over.

"Your always hungry." Uhura said, turning back to Len. "So....What are your plans for the day? Anything exciting? Clinic shift?"

Leonard shifted in his seat a little. "No....Just planning on going back to my room and studying for that Anatomy quiz thats coming up."

"Some people do not take the same classes as you, Leonard, and therefore have no idea that an Anatomy quiz is coming up." Khan said haughtily. 

"And here I thought you and Spock being together was bad but I stand corrected. You act the same damn way." Khan had bristled a bit in his boyfriends defense until said boyfriend put his hand on top of the table so Khan could lace their fingers together. Leonard couldn't keep his mouth closed as he gaped.

"Leonard has the propensity to only talk when he wants to get a rise out of someone Khan. Do not feel offended on my behalf." He looked up at Len then and gave a smirk. "I believe you are 'trying to catch flies' with your mouth open like that. Surely it is not so shocking to see me comforting my boyfriend?"

"You barely ever touch anyone. No even Uhura when you dated, so excuse me if Im a little flabbergasted."

Jim snickered a bit and suddenly he had the mans eyes on him again. "They can't really keep their hands off each other. Its kinda sickening actually."

"Liar. You get turned on by everything." Uhura laughed, tossing a napkin at him.

"Do not!"

And then a war started of trying to throw more paper than the other one could. Everyone except for Khan and Spock got dragged into the war. Those two seemed to be in their own little world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leonard and Nyota eventually won the war thanks to Scotty holding Jim still for his girlfriend to pelt him in the face. After they had cleaned up all the mess, they finally ordered the pizzas and conversation had drifted to talk of classes for the remainder of the meal. When everyone was starting to head out, Nyota tagged behind to walk with Jim.

"You should invite yourself to study with him." She whispered, looking at Leonards back where he was talking to Scotty.

"No way! How would I even go about doing that? We aren't exactly in the same classes..."

"Say the internet is out at your place and ask if you can come over and use his?" She suggested.

"How the hell would that work. Why wouldn't I just ask you guys? I've known you longer."

She sighed in frustration. "Because were 'busy' Jim. Stop being such a chicken. You want him, you gotta do the work." She quickly caught up to the others leaving Jims mind reeling.

He walked slowly for a bit to where Leonard actually looked back at him twice with a worried look on his face. He tried to smile reassuringly at the man but clearly it didn't work very well as he had hung back to walk next to him.

"Doin alright?" He asked in that southern accent that sent tingles up Jims spine.

"Fine." He said and then thought of Nyotas advice. "Just trying to think of what to do for studying. My internets out and everyones too busy to lend me theirs. Library sucks at this time of day and most of the computers are already taken. I don't think Im going to get anything done at this rate is all." He bit his lip hoping the other wouldn't guess it was a bullshit excuse.

Leonard didn't even blink. "You can use mine."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Had he really just said that? What the hell was he thinking, inviting Jim Kirk over to use his computer? Clearly he needed to go to the hospital and have himself checked out because he was having a brain aneurysm. And then the kids face lit up and he got butterflies in his stomach.

"Really? Oh man that would help me out so much! Thanks Bones."

"Bones?" He asked with a scoff in his voice.

"Yeah cause your gonna be a doctor. You needed a cool nickname."

"No I don't."

His grin got wider. "Whatever you say....Bones."

Sighing they sped up to catch up with the others.


	6. Chapter 6

He tried not to let his hands shake as he unlocked his dorm room. It was pretty big and spacious since he was on the medical track and luckily he didn't have to share it with anyone. He walked in and threw his coat on a chair before going over to start up his lap top that was on the desk. He tapped nervously on the desk for a minute before the screen lite up with life and he exited out of some browsers.

"You should be good to go, I guess. Just let me know if you need anything. I'll be reading my books on my bed." He pointed the few inches away that the bed was.

Jim smirked. "Alright. At least if I get bored you wont be too far away for me to bug."

"Dammit Jim you came over here to study and that had bettered be what you do."

Jim smirked and went to set his bag down by the computer and opened up some browsers to what he needed.

They worked quietly for a couple of hours, stealing a few glances here and there. Leonard was surprised it wasn't more awkward than it was. It was actually kind of nice to study with someone and not have them bickering with him every few minutes or trying to steal his notes.

Finally Jim cleared his throat and Leonard looked at the clock. It was going on two hours since they had started.

"So....Im about to go nuts if I have to write or read one more sentence. Wanna go grab a snack somewhere?" He sounded hopeful and Leonard didn't have the heart to tell him no.

"Sure. I know a bakery around the corner that has amazing muffins. Taste just like how my mama makes them."

"Where are you from, Bones?"

Leonard snorted at the name. "Georgia. Born and raised. You?"

"Iowa. Can't say that I really miss it though."

"Ah I miss Georgia. Gets too damn cold here."

Jim laughed and it sounded like bells ringing in Leonards ears. It was a happy bright sound that he didn't mind hearing. Shit.

"Alright lets lock up and head out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

They made a little more small talk on the way to the bakery. Just more talk of weather and places that they had been. It wasn't very stilted and they talked smoothly but still Leonard wondered if maybe Nyota got it wrong and Jim didn't really like him. Maybe he was just trying to make another friend.

He thought that up until the point that they were done ordering and he turned around to ask Jim where he wanted to sit and caught him looking at his butt. Jim blushed and Leonard cleared his throat as they made their way to their seat.

"So your gonna be a doctor huh Bones?" Jim said around a bite of muffin.

"Chew with your mouth closed kid. N' yeah I am. If I can finish this damn degree without ripping my head off first."

"That bad huh?" Jim said with a smile.

"Nah. Its just a lot to deal with some times. You're in Engineering right?"

"Yup." He said popping the p. "I want to be able to build stuff or work for NASA or something. Still haven't really decided."

 Leonard laughed. "Those sound like some pretty big goals though. Everyone keeps telling me that your a genius."

Jim blushed a little and looked away sheepishly. "Nah. Gotta be a genius to become a doctor though. I do not envy your course load."

They both laughed a little before looking at each other. It was a quiet, peaceful moment of just looking each other over. Finally Leonard broke the silence.

"Would you like to get dinner later?"

Jim blinked slowly. "Like....like a date?"

Leonard smiled warmly. "Yeah Jim like a date."


	7. Chapter 7: What the heart wants

He couldn't believe he had asked the kid out but low and behold is mouth had gotten ahead of his brain and out it popped. He looked in the mirror and tried to smooth down his hair for the billionth time. He straightened his tie and sighed. He hadn't dated since his ex wife and he really should have learned from that mistake. This kid was a looker, that was for sure, and he would probably break Leonards heart and walk all over it on the way out the door. But it was too late now, he had let his lips do the talking and he hoped his heart could cash that check.

 

He jumped when he heard a knock at the door and chuckled at himself when he went to answer it. Immediately he felt his attempts to look nice, a white button down with the top button open to revel a gray tank top and his best pair of jeans, was not good enough. Jim had on a black tshirt that clung to his body in all the right places but was Leonards second favorite compared to those pants. Those damn pants that were leather painted onto his skin. Leo was scared that if he bent over they would rip, or give him a spectacular view.

"I suddenly feel like Im under dressed." He said sheepishly.

Jim blinked at him. "No trust me you look great." He gave Leo a charming smile that melted his anxiety.

"Well lets head out. I've got reservations for two at Donatello's." Jim whistled. Donatello's was the fanciest and most expensive Italian restaurant in town. Bones was going all out for a first date. Jim felt butterflies in his stomach.

"Alrighty Bones lead the way." The man snorted but said nothing to the nickname as they headed out. He held the door open for Jim and ignored the raised eyebrow he got. His mama raised a gentleman not a fool and he was not going to let his breeding go to waste.

"So you get that paper done that you were bitchin bout last night?" He asked with good humor. Even after Jim had left they had talked to each other on the phone all night and on tumblr about homework and if their friends relationships would last. They wouldn't touch Khan and Spocks relationship with a ten foot pole though no matter if their lives depended on it.

"Finally at about four am after we hung up. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the closing thesis. But then two more cups of coffee it comes to me and bam I get to pass out on my futon." His smile is infectious and Leo finds himself returning it.

The rest of the walk over to the restaurant is filled with laughter as Jim tries to explain what a furry is to Leo and by the time they reach there restaurant their cheeks are warmed from laughing to hard. They were now on the topic do animal costumes in bedroom play count as being a furry or not when Leo cleared his throat.

"So were here and I don't think they would appreciate the conversations as much as we do so maybe we should switch them?" He winked as he held the door open for Jim again.

"This a thing for you? Opening doors like a real southern gentleman?"

"My Mama raised me right." He gave his name to the maitre d and they were led to a private little candle lite table in the back corner of the resturant.

"This is fancy." Jim said taking in then environment around them.

Leonard was blushing at this. "I wanted to do right by you."

Jim blinked and looked back at him. "More southern gentleman upbringing? Really you could have taken me to a bar and I still would have been happy to go with you." He reached across the table shyly to run his fingers over Bones hand.

He snorted. "With the way your dressed I would have had to beat people off you with a stick. Im not one for sharing."

Jim let out a full bellied laugh. "This? This is just me trying to see how many times I can catch you looking at my butt all night."

"At least ten times so far. If you were planning on giving me a heart attack with those it worked."

"Not really the part of your anatomy I was hoping to affect." He laughed as Leo blushed again.

The waiter came and took their orders and the night progressed to fast for Leonards taste. He couldn't get enough of his conversations with Jim or the way his eyes would twinkle as he said something mischievous that was meant to rile Leonard. Eventually the meal ended and they made the trek back to the dorms. When they reached Jims door he smiled and leaned against the jam. 

"I would invite you in for a drink but we both know that would be a ruse and your mama raised you to well to put out on the first date Im guessing?" He grinned.

"I have been thinking about nothing else all night but we should take this slow. Make sure that its something we both want and that we can fit together."

"Trust me there is nothing more I want. I can wait for you Bones. You just gotta let me know when your ready." With that he ducked up so quick Leo didn't see it coming and gave him a quick peck on the mouth before disappearing into his room. Leo was still standing there a few minutes later touching his lips in awe.

 

 


	8. I don't want to miss a thing

_I told you that you would like him. - Talentedtongue._

Damn woman wasn't going to let it go. She was just going to sit there and gloat all night. Len did not want to deal with this. 

**Thats one out of one for you. Look Jim and I are gonna take things slow ok. So dont go pushing things with us.**

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. He couldn't get that kiss out of his mind. Sure it was just a quick peck and then Jim had ducked behind his door, but that was more than Len had had in a while and it was going straight to his head....or his heart. He was already counting the minutes till he got to see Jim again. He was in way over his head. 

_Leonard, we would like to converse with you on the subject of Jim if you have a few moments today. We will drop by your dorm around 9.- It-is-logical._

Oh shit. Oh no way. He did not want to have a conversation with those two. He wondered if he had enough time to throw on some clothes and run out of the dorm before they got there. He looked at the clock quickly. Damn, 10 minutes till they got there. He would just have to pray they were just going to give him the safe sex talk. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't the safe sex talk.

"What are your intentions with James." Khan got right down to it and Spock actually had the gall to look a little sheepish about it.

"What we mean to ask Leonard, is if you see this relationship actually coming to fruition?" Khan just stayed glaring at Len while Spock waited patiently.

Leonard picked his jaw up off the floor. "Are you two really going to give me the 'break his heart I break your face' speech right now?"

"We would never wish harm upon either of you, but we know that this relationship will be tricky. We wish to offer any help you may need in your endeavor."

"Also if you hurt each other we will be very mad." Khan said and snorted at the look on Mccoys face. "Dont give me that look. We already had this conversation with James last night."

"First I wish I could see the look on his face when you call him James, and second you had this conversation with him too?" Len was confused. He thought they were worried about him breaking Jims heart.

"We do care for you also, Leonard. Do not doubt that. And while we care for you equally we know that with your pas you may have a harder time with this relationship thanks to Jims.....reputation. We can assure you that you have nothing to worry about." Spock hold up his hands like that will pacify Len.

"Wait you think that I am going to have problems with this relationship. Hell were not even in a relationship yet. We are taking it slow to see where it goes but I can tell you I cant see anything that I don't like yet." He folded his arms across his chest trying not to get angry. He knew that they were just concerned for both of them. It was weird and endearing at the same time.

Khan raised an eyebrow. "You have no problem with the multiple partners Jim has had in the past?"

Leonard got a little angry on Jims behalf. "Frankly his past partners are no ones business but his and we have already had the conversation about how I like to be monogamous and he agreed."

Spock smiled and looked over at Khan who just sighed. "That is a good sign. We never thought we could get him to settle for one person but it seems like he really likes you to give that up."

Leonard has no idea what to say to that so he just stands there quietly as they gather their things and leave, apparently put at ease by the weird conversation they just had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hes dozing on the couch when the door bell rings. He blearily wipes at his eyes as he opens the door.

Jim tries not to squeal but a little noise comes out. "Oh my god you are so adorable. Did I just wake you up?" He asks as he shoves in carrying a pizza box.

"Wha' time is it?" Mccoy grumbles moving over to the couch and climbing back under the blanket as Jim raids the fridge for beer.

"Just a little before six. Man your paper must have killed you if youre falling asleep in the middle of the day like an old man." He snorts as he plops down next to him, shoving his cold feet under the blanket making Len curse.

"I am an old man and dammit what have I told you about wearing socks. Its almost Winter for Christ sake." He picks up a foot and starts rubbing it to try and get circulation running in it faster.

"Mmmm but then how would I get you to rub my feet." He closes his eyes in bliss for a moment before leaning forward to open the pizza box. "Look I come baring gifts. I should get a reward for that." He smiles cheekily at Bones.

"MMmm I guess you should." He leans over, bracketing Jim with his arms on either side of him on the couch and kisses him slowly before leaning back. "Best way to wake up."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Its not been beta'd and I have also posted this on Tumblr. I have the same user name there.


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